The Specially Appointed Chamber of the ICTY
today convicted Florence Hartmann, a one-time spokesperson for a former
Tribunal Prosecutor and a former journalist at the French newspaper Le Monde, of contempt for disclosing in
a book and as well as an article confidential information in knowing violation
of a court order. Summary of the judgment is available here.

One may find the decision highly
regrettable. While employees of any court can legitimately be expected to refrain
from disseminating confidential information, it is also important to remember
that “justice is not a cloistered
virtue: she must be allowed to suffer the scrutiny and the respectful even
though outspoken comments of ordinary men” (Ambard v AG for Trinidad and
Tobago [1936] AC 322, 335, Lord Atkin).

In this particular case, Hartmann’s freedom
of expression must have prevailed over her obligation to respect the
confidentiality of court proceedings. Indeed, in her book, the former
spokesperson made serious allegations on matters of decisive public interest,
i.e. she exposes, among many other dodgy episodes, how Western powers sought to
influence the ICTY to spare Serbia a genocide conviction at the ICJ (for
further analysis, seeEJIL's blog).